Nations are asleep at the controls over nuclear threat, Annan tells PU

U.N. secretary-general challenges international community to prevent proliferation and promote disarmament.

By: Jake Uitti
   United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking at Princeton University on Tuesday, said the only way to confront the dangers of nuclear weapons is by simultaneously preventing nuclear proliferation and promoting nuclear disarmament.
   Waiting for one before the other, Mr. Annan said, creates a paralysis, and this is precisely what he accused leaders of states of doing.
   "We are sleepwalking towards a disaster," said Mr. Annan, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.
   Continuing the metaphor, the secretary-general likened the process of achieving nuclear safety to flying a plane.
   "It is as if we are asleep at the controls of an aircraft," he said. "Unless we wake up, the outcome will be all too predictable."
   Mr. Annan, who is in the last month of his final term as secretary-general, spoke to a packed crowd in Richardson Auditorium at Alexander Hall. After his speech, he was presented with the Crystal Tiger Award for serving as an agent of progress.
   Mr. Annan was the third recipient of the award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a strong commitment to enriching the human experience and who have inspired students at Princeton to pursue the same goal, according to the Crystal Tiger Award committee.
   Mr. Annan, who has been with the United Nations since 1962, said the international community — in particular those countries with nuclear arsenals — cannot choose between a path of nonproliferation or disarmament. Instead, both wings of the plane must be secured so that a smooth landing can be made.
   "Nuclear weapons present a unique existential threat to all humanity," he said. "Governments are addressing it selectively, not comprehensively."
   Mr. Annan said there have been opportunities to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, drafted in 1968, as recently as 2005, but governments "failed" both times.
   "They couldn’t agree whether nonproliferation or disarmament should come first," he said.
   The debate comes down to a central question, he said: Are weapons a cause or a symptom of centers of conflict?
   The answer, he said, is both.
   "Efforts are needed both to reduce arms and reduce conflict," he said. "Likewise, efforts for disarmament and nonproliferation" are needed, he added. "Both sides are crucial."
   Mr. Annan said he is concerned that three confirmed nuclear power states — India, Pakistan and North Korea — are not part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Currently 188 states are part of the treaty.
   Israel, an unconfirmed nuclear power, is also not a part of the treaty.
   In addition, Mr. Annan said he is concerned about Iran, which has been accused of trying to develop nuclear weapons, despite the fact that it has signed the treaty.
   A leadership role needs to be taken in the "daunting task" of controlling nuclear missile testing, he said, by countries such as the United States.
   "If the U.S. shows a lead, others will follow," he said.
   It is easy to tell another country that it must cease its nuclear programs, Mr. Annan said, but if the United States and other nuclear powers were to halt their own missile testing, that would send an even stronger message.
   "Such steps would do more than anything else to advance the cause of nonproliferation," the secretary-general said. "I call on all states with nuclear programs to develop timetables for disarmament."
   The United States in recent years has been working on an antimissile defense program that the United Nations has said is unnecessary.
   The threat of nuclear conflict, Mr. Annan said, is a grave threat against human life, global development, human rights, the environment and much more.
   Mr. Annan explained that he is a proponent of creating a central system for countries that want to harness nuclear power to produce energy — as long as it is for "peaceful purposes."
   Perhaps the biggest obstacle to securing peace under the looming threat of nuclear war is that there is a "cloud of mistrust," he said. Because of this cloud, a two-pronged approach is needed — to disarm countries that have nuclear weapons and to halt the proliferation of weapons to keep them out of the hands of states that do not have them. It is a global duty to secure the world, he said.
   A timetable needs to be established, he argued, through negotiations between the leaders of states.